Can't seem to loose...what am I doin wrong?

Ok...I checked out your food diary, and here's the trend I've noticed: You're skipping meals, and you're not eating enough calories. Basically, you're breaking your own metabolism. This morning you ate less than 200 calories for breakfast, and you skipped dinner last night. By going so long without anything substantial in your system, you're literally starving your body. So, because our bodies are smarter than we think, it's hoarding everything you put in it to use later to convert to energy. This will cause weight gain.

Your first meal of the day is called breakfast...this meal gets its term from literally breaking the fast that your body goes through when you're asleep at night. I'm sure you've heard that this is the most important meal of the day, and that holds 100% true. This meal should contain at least one of everything from each food group. When you start your day off with a meal like this, it affects your mood greatly in a positive way and will help you stay on track for the rest of the day.

Next, if I were you, I'd switch back to regular soda and just limit your intake. Here's why: Diet sodas have zero calories, zero sugar, zero nutrition. As I said, our bodies are smarter than we are. When you put this stuff in your body and try to "trick" it into thinking you had something sweet, your body laughs at you! It knows that it cannot use anything in that soda for energy. So it sends a signal to the brain that you're still hungry and you need something sweet. So your body tells you it's hungry. This will cause people to overeat and gain more weight. Not to mention the chemicals that are used to create this sugar-free drink aren't good for your body. So stick to real stuff. My feelings are like this for any "diet" or "fat-free" food. It's not a natural product and we were not built to ingest unnatural stuff. It causes all sorts of health issues for us and your body can't process any of it.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying the foods that you love. But when those foods are loaded down with simple carbs and saturated fats, you've gotta think about lowering your intake. Discipline yourself to only have one serving a day and use those extra calories for filling, healthy foods like fruits, veggies, nuts, fish, chicken, whole-grain foods. You might not even have a desire to eat those other foods once you put the good stuff in your body because you'll feel much more satisfied.

If you were one of my clients and I was laying out a plan for you, my biggest suggestion would be to make sure you are eating regularly throughout the day and not skipping any meals and to track everything you put in your body. Even if you end up going over your calorie intake, if you can see what you're putting into your body, you will see what you can change on your own. Stay off the scale until you make a habit of tracking everything and eating consistently. From there, then you can implement those small changes that will make a huge impact on your body, like substituting in water for one of those sodas or eating an apple instead of that cookie, etc. Don't try to change everything at once...it's a step by step process and nobody is perfect. Even as a personal trainer, I still make mistakes. Just don't beat yourself up over it and get back on track as quickly as possible.

Hope this is helpful to you! I know that you can do this. Patience is a virtue, though, and something that everyone struggles with. You'll get where you want to!!

Not eating for 18-24 hours once or twice a week will not hurt your metabolism at all, nor will missing a meal. Our bodies are much more capable than that.

This is essentially true, but really can only be applied to those who already have good habits established. However, in this case, when a person eats less than 500 calories one day, then the following day gets barely over 1200, and in one of those meals 60% of it is sugar and saturated fat (aka cookies), skipping meals and going for long periods between meals is extremely detrimental to weight loss goals. And while we only have a glimpse of what her eating habits are like since she's brand new to the site, we can only assume that what we see is what is typical.

While I agree with everything else you said, that was the one thing that caught my attention that made me think "woah!" You're not wrong...but it's good to understand why at this point, skipping meals should be avoided at all costs. Once she habitually gets enough calories everyday and gets the nutrients she needs, then it won't be as bad if she misses a meal once in a while.

Vick9180 & Rileysowner

Thank you so much for all the information you have given me! I can now see where I need to improve on my eating habits. I had no idea that diet soda is worse for you then regular. I figured if I saw the 0 calories 0 sugars on the label, the better for me it is. I still have a lot to learn as you are proving, and I am most definitely willing to learn! I just have to remember "one step at a time".

Thanks again!!

There isn't a whole lot proven on the whole 'diet is worse than regular soda' argument. If you want pop, have some--just in moderation! Listen to some of the advice people gave you about taking small steps to get your nutrition figured out. Don't get overly worried on the minutia just yet(face it--sweeteners are trivial when you're trying to make sure your meals are balanced!) --wait until you have a solid base and balanced nutritional habits.

Not eating for 18-24 hours once or twice a week will not hurt your metabolism at all, nor will missing a meal. Our bodies are much more capable than that.

This is essentially true, but really can only be applied to those who already have good habits established. However, in this case, when a person eats less than 500 calories one day, then the following day gets barely over 1200, and in one of those meals 60% of it is sugar and saturated fat (aka cookies), skipping meals and going for long periods between meals is extremely detrimental to weight loss goals. And while we only have a glimpse of what her eating habits are like since she's brand new to the site, we can only assume that what we see is what is typical.

While I agree with everything else you said, that was the one thing that caught my attention that made me think "woah!" You're not wrong...but it's good to understand why at this point, skipping meals should be avoided at all costs. Once she habitually gets enough calories everyday and gets the nutrients she needs, then it won't be as bad if she misses a meal once in a while.

I understand your point, but at the same time I don't want people obsessing over "starvation mode" or "slowing their metabolism" because of a couple of missed meals. Intentionally doing it while eating a good healthy diet 90-95% of the time will not hurt a person. With our lack of data I simply did not what the OP to get all stressed out. It think the bigger issue at this point is that she is moderately active or more in her normal daily activity and only at 1200 calories. That is, except for very odd situations, way to few calories in a day.